44(> ^HE WORLD'S WONDERS 



STANLEY'S 



SECOND EXPEDITION 



CHAPTER XXV. 



PROMPTINGS WHICH LED TO HIS SECOND JOURNEY. 



STANLEY introduces his second famous expedition across the 

 continent of Africa in the following words : 



"While returning to England in April, '74, from the Ashantee 

 War, the news reached me that Livingstone was dead that his 

 body was on its way to England ! 



" Livingstone had then fallen ! He was dead ! He hud died by 

 the shores of Lake Bemba, on the threshold of the dark region 

 he wished to explore I The work he had promised to perform 

 was only begun when death overtook him ! 



" The effect which this news had upon me, after the first shock 

 had passed away, was to fire me with a resolution to complete his 

 work, to be, if God willed it, the next martyr to geographical 

 science, or, if my life was to be spared, to clear up not only the 

 secrets of the Great River throughout its course, but also all that 

 remained still problematic and incomplete of the discoveries of 

 Burton and Speke, and Speke and Grant. 



" The solemn day of the burial of the body of my great friend 

 arrived. I was one of the pall-bearers in Westminister Abbey, 

 and when I had seen the coffin lowered into the grave, and had 

 heard the first handful of earth thrown over it, I walked away 

 sorrowing over the fate of David Livingstone." 



One day, strolling into the office of the London Daily Tele- 

 graph, he engaged its proprietors, Messrs. Levy and Lawson, in 

 conversation on his favorite subject, and before leaving they 



